In this episode of Category Close-Up: Expert Analysis, we’ll be taking a deep dive into the sports drinks category.
Our guests for this episode include:
- Karen Formanski, Health & Nutrition Analyst, Mintel
- Mark French, CEO, X2 Performance
In individual discussions with each guest, the focus turns to sports drinks, which powered through the pandemic to over $7.5 billion in sales over the past year. Yet even as the category’s dominant brands continue to expand the space — analysts are predicting it to pass $10 billion by 2024 — sports drinks are also being disrupted by a cohort of ambitious and innovative companies that are pushing the segment into new areas, day parts, use occasions and functional benefits. Over the course of the episode, we’ll touch on subjects like channel growth and market innovation, the changing role of athlete investors, how greater variety in sports drinks is helping reach new demographics, consumers’ changing attitudes towards sports drinks, and more.